Baby Basics Liverpool – 100 Baskets and Counting!

Baby Basics Liverpool is giving thanks this month, as the project has delivered its 100th Moses basket full of essential baby items to a local family in need.

The occasion was marked by a service of thanksgiving and celebration at Liverpool’s Freedom Church last Sunday 5th February, where Liverpool Midwife Carolyn Moore spoke to congregation about the positive impact the scheme has for vulnerable families through “not just the amazing contents they receive, but also with the love they receive in knowing that someone care for them and their baby.”

Baby Basics Liverpool was started in July 2015 by a committed team of volunteers from Freedom Church Liverpool, who started collecting donations and putting together Moses baskets full of essential baby items. These baskets have been given away to families where babies were about to be born into situations of vulnerability – where mothers simply did not have the essential items to help look after their newborn child.

The families are usually identified as needing support by local enhanced and community midwives, as well as other key agencies, such as Asylum Link, social workers and children’s centres, who collect and deliver the baskets to each family once they have been prepared by the project’s volunteers.

Liverpool Baby Basics was inspired by the Big Help Project in Kirkby, a Christian charity which delivers multiple projects, including Baby Basics Knowsley. This year will see the two schemes working even more closely, sharing expertise and resources to ensure that the scheme reaches as many mums and babies as possible across Liverpool.

The Moses baskets (see image below) themselves contain a huge range of essential items for both the newborn baby and their mother. For example:

Nappies

Cotton wool

Baby Wipes

Toiletries for Mum and baby

Baby blankets

Breast pads

Maternity pads

Socks and mittens

Vests

Babygros

Towels

And a nice box of chocolates for Mummy!

Virtually all items – including the baskets themselves – are donated to the project, thanks to the incredible generosity of local people, who are committed to either purchasing, handing down or even making items themselves! Hundreds more volunteer hours have been spent sorting and storing the items, and then assembling them into beautiful baskets to be given away. Without this small army of generous people, the project would simply not achieve anything, and Baby Basics Liverpool wishes to thank every single person who has given their time, energy and resources so generously to make the project successful.